Brainstorming
Once we were given our assignment for the escape room, the team met up and brainstormed what puzzle we could build. Here are a few of our ideas written on a chalk board.
Escape from Wonderland was an escape room built for Carnegie Mellon University's 2023 Spring Carnival by the Theme Park Engineering Group.
The club was split into three teams, each in charge of a puzzle for the escape room. Lauren Platt and I were on the "teacup puzzle", where we with some other TPEG members came up with the idea to use a Makey-Makey to turn teacups into computer inputs that play piano notes when the cups touch the saucers. We decided that the puzzle needed to fit into the theme of the Mad Hatter's "unbirthday", as the escape was themed after the tea party, so guests had to read a riddle and play "Happy Birthday" using the teacups to solve the puzzle.
Brainstorming
As we continued to come up with ideas, we liked the idea of digital interactive experience. With Lauren and I's knowledge from the ETC, we felt that we were able to pull it off.
Makey-Makey Demo
To test the technology before proceeding, we created a quick demo using cardboard cups and the Makey-Makey website piano.
Riddle
Once the riddle had been tested with several students, we finalized it. The "song" alludes to the fact that guests play happy birthday, while the "candles" mean that guests need to count the candles on the cake in the artwork.
Reveal Image
When guests correctly play the song, an image will appear with the CMU mascot Scotty and his birthday cake. The numbers of candles relates to the number that guests will input on the lock to finish the game.
Final
I created the Unity project that the guests solve the puzzle on. Here is a video of the puzzle in action.